WIP

Twenty-Four Days

(sequel to To Hunt a Sub)

Terrorists plot to destroy America from within by eating away at the world’s confidence in her military and economic strength. The enemy hijacks two subs and uses them to attack innocent civilians. America fights a two front war, combatting the unexpected attack on the linchpin of her defensive strategy while trying to stop the North Korean launch of a ‘peaceful’ communications satellite that America believes to be the world’s first space-based weapon.

The main characters are Zeke Rowe, ex-SEAL-turned anthropology professor, Kali Delamagente, inventor of a quirky and personable automated intelligence. The star, though, is America’s most technologically-advanced cruiser, the USS Bunker Hill.

The climax of the story is a Naval battle that pits every offensive weapon available to the Bunker Hill against the North Korean air force, an old Romeo class sub and the sociopathic mind of a terrorist.

Planned publication: August 2017

Lucy: Story of Man

Volume One of the Evolution Files

Lucy (NLN), a pregnant homeless teenager, follows her mate across the African continent in hopes of a better life for her unborn child. She has little to recommend her except a passion for her unborn son and a stubborn refusal to capitulate to problems. She is similar to many of today’s troubled teens, single moms, and restless youth.

Except she lived 1.8 million years old.

You’ve never heard of Lucy, but you’ve studied her in anthropology, read about her paleo African homeland with its sulfuric climate, mind-boggling earthquakes and earth-shattering volcanics that even now split the continent in two. Through Lucy, you’ll see how man learned to face problems. solve them and survive in a world where man was not yet king.

Planned publication: August 2018

Born in a Treacherous Time

The sequel to Lucy’s story, this is mankind’s saga. How could a mammal, unequipped as man was to survive in a world that honored physical strength and muscular prowess, eventually call every corner of the planet ‘home’? This story gives you that answer:

Ever wonder how those scrawny protohumans without claws, sharp teeth or thick skin survived the likes of Sabertooth? Me too, so I researched it and ended up with That Which Does Not Kill, the prehistoric saga of Xhosa and her band of warriors. Turns out to be a dashing tale, full of suspense, drama, and the appealing characters that we moderns can relate to. What didn’t kill them made them stronger, and isn’t that what Darwin predicted when he labeled evolution ‘survival of the fittest’?

Xhosa is a teenager, growing up in a typical Homo erectus tribe, when calamity strikes. Her father is killed by a band of strange-looking outsiders with stone-tipped weapons her people have never before seen. With his dying breath, he orders her to protect his tribe, take them away from these dangerous newcomers. Xhosa agrees, oblivious to those among her People who don’t want a female leader and will do whatever it takes to get rid of her.

Xhosa’s high-octane mix of intelligence and heart sets in motion a dangerous struggle to survive against not just Nature and her complement of earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and searing heat, but man’s newest iteration, archaic Homo sapiens, In quick succession, she must flee with her People out of Africa, into the unknown lands of what is now the Middle East, avoid the indigenous populations of cannibals and two-legged predators, and accept a tenuous alliance with others like her, forged by the mutual need for protection from those who wish to destroy them. With the promise she made to her father ringing in her ears, she calls on every one of man’s newly-honed thinking skills as she leads her band on a trek across paleo-Eurasia, over lands now buried by ocean, across the Pyrenees, set on finding a new home and fulfilling the vision she imagines for her tribe’s future.

In the spirit of Jean Auel and Kathleen Gear, this is a sweeping epic of prehistory which brings the true story of our ancestors brave migration from the only land they’d ever known, an unforgettable saga of hardship and determination, conflict and passion.

Planned availability: August 2019

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About Me

Jacqui Murray is the author of the popular Building a Midshipman, the story of her daughter’s journey from high school to United States Naval Academy, and the thriller, To Hunt a Sub. She is also the author/editor of over a hundred books on integrating tech into education, adjunct professor of technology in education, webmaster for four blogs, an Amazon Vine Voice book reviewer, a columnist for TeachHUB, monthly contributor to Today’s Author and a freelance journalist on tech ed topics. You can find her books at her publisher’s website, Structured Learning.